Minister of Medical Education Dr K Sudhakar on Saturday said that the government planned to setup 60 laboratories by May end to test 10,000 samples per day in the fight against Covid-19.
He was speaking after launching two TrueNat machines at the district hospital to test Covid-19. At present, there are 40 laboratories across the state for the testing purposes.
“Chikkaballapur is the city with the highest tests per million population in the state. The new laboratory will enable us to detect and treat the infected persons at the primary level. This is a significant step in Karnataka’s fight against novel coronavirus considering that state had just two laboratories in the beginning of February and had capability of testing a few hundreds,” he said.
Sudhakar said,”We have more strength in this fight against Covid-19. Increase in laboratories will help in the early diagnosis of Covid-19 cases. This will reduce the mortality rate and increase the number of recovered cases.”
From the beginning, Karnataka followed 4T Strategy (testing, tracking, tracing and treatment) to effectively contain the Covid-19. The increase in number of laboratories and testing capacity was the part of that strategy for conducting large numbers of tests to help early detection and take precautions or treatment as necessary, he said.
“We need to learn to live with the Covid-19 and fight against it as the World Health Organisation has stated that there seems to be no end from novel coronavirus in near future. The Covid-19 crisis has hit the world and the country’s economy hard. The lockdown phase-4 will be different as relaxations are inevitable,” he said. Deputy commissioner R Latha, Zilla Panchayat president M B Chikkanarasimhaiah, ZP Chief Executive Officer Fouzia B Taranum and others were present.
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